Human Resources in the Automotive Industry

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Table of Contents

Background
Aims
Method
Automobile Organization
Literature Analysis
Discussion
References

Background

Globally, the evaluation of organizing functions of management of large industries such as the automobile industry is critical to ensure the effective and efficient use of human resources and technology (Stevens, 2008). There is a wealth of literature on the assessment of human resources management and new product development in the automobile industry where numerous product lines and services make up the company profile. Ultimately, all products and services within a multi-process company are linked in some way to both technological and organisational aspects of the firm. As such, it is of great importance to management of corporations to be organized in ways that optimise the interaction of different projects at organizational and technological levels. In this way a firm is able to leverage its engineering and financial and other human resources simultaneously with research and design of new technologies, and in turn enhance their global competitive edge.

Aims

This research paper will evaluate the Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC Japan) to:

Identify its organizational function of management with regards to human resources and technology.
Provide evidence-based literature to support conclusions.
Demonstrate that TMC is an example of a firm with effective and efficient management organization.

Method

A literature review was undertaken using online journals accessed through Google Scholar. Only peer-reviewed papers were chosen that had been published within the last 5 years. Online literature pertaining to Toyota Motor Corporation were accessed via their website, particularly on pages referring to the company’s profile and organization.

Automobile Organization

The Toyota Motor Corporation was established August 28, 1937, and will celebrate its 72^nd anniversary in 2009. Its head office is in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. With over 69,478 employees TMC had a net revenue of 26,289.2 billion yen in the financial year April 2007 – March 2008. Toyota anticipate being able to continue to provide a wide range of projects managed to strengthen the company’s foundation in its goal to make giant leaps forward in human resources and technology over the next decades.

Literature Analysis

The Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) as recently as January 1, 2009, made organizational changes at the management level. It is anticipated that these changes will enhance the strength of TMC’s management organization by increasing their capacity to strengthen their functions and expertise in cultivating human resources and research and development in technological areas. Thus, it appears that TMC has approached the New Year with the goal of implementing changes that will leverage their already fantastic global market edge. The restructuring of management organization at the beginning of the year was a wise decision as it gives the workers and shareholders, as well as management a psychological boost that inefficient processes and departments are made obsolete (Zhou, Zhu & Zhang, 2007). The end result appears to be a streamlined company, clearly focused on its goals, integrating management of human resources and technology, to provide a solid operation of global expertise.

One such management reorganization was that of The Global External Affairs has become the Overseas External Affairs Division. Management in this Division maintain their close collaborative ties with the Public Affairs Division whilst strengthening their response time to inquiries that come to them globally. Additionally, the new organization of managers will function to enhance each Division’s capacity to disseminate information about TMC. Increasing the firm’s strategic abilities by way of having global headquarters enables the gathering and unifying of public affairs functions (Armstrong, 2006).

Another restructuring change made to TMC management organization was that of the Accounting Group. The Affiliated Companies Finance Division became the Affiliated Companies Finance Department, the Accounting Division and the Finance Division. These divisions aim to enhance the consolidated position of business management of TMC as well as its financial management system as is evident in its formation of a Finance Division. This Division was established by integrating the company’s financial capital functions.

With regards to management organization of technology divisions, the Hirose Plant Quality Control Division has been established to increase the already high quality control systems for semiconductors as used in their hybrid vehicles. Also the Tsutsumi Plant Machining Division was restructured to more accurately reflect the departments operations, enabling process team focus on unit manufacturing (Armstrong, 2006), thus calling for a name change to reflect this emphasis, Tsutsumi Plant Unit Manufacturing Division.

Discussion

The numerous New Year changes to management organization at TMC highlights the firm’s commitment to keep its competitive edge in the global marketplace whilst meeting its Corporate Social Responsibility obligations. The Toyota Motor Corporation’s decisions reflect best practices espoused by current literature with regards to the optimisation of human resources and technology. For example, the reorganization of Divisions to more fully integrate overlapping services and to keep ahead of research and development with regard to vehicles, TMC has provided for the acceleration of present day technological changes and customer as well as shareholder and employee expectations of high standards of service and inclusiveness (Ulrich, 2006). It is abundantly clear within the automobile industry that differences in product development and human resource performance are dependant on the efficacy of organizational management.

As such, TMC’s is restructuring shows that its management practices are focused on the strategic and coherent coordination of human resources and technological production. This is critical as an organizations most valuable assets is actually the people working for it, who both individually and collectively make possible the achievements of the firm. Indeed technological advances in research and development divisi ions would not be possible without the adequate coordination of staffs, which is ultimately dependant on the organization of senior management.

References

Armstrong, Michael (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (10th edition ed.). London: Kogan Page.
Stevans, M. (2008). Foreign Influences on the Japanese Automobile Industry: The Nissan-Renault Mutual Learning Alliance. Asia Pacific Business Review, 14(1), 13-27.
Ulrich, Dave (2006). Human Resource Champions. The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press.
Zhou, G., Zhu, W., & Zhang, H. (2007). Innovation capabilities evaluation approach for Chinese automobile enterprises. Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing (WiCom) International Conference, New York, USA.

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